Foreshadow
by White Rabbit3
Summary: A story taking place before Ender's time, about one of the kids they thought would defeat the buggers and failed...
1. Send Her Up

Disclaimer: Orson Scott Card owns it all, folks.  
  
Righto - here's my second fanfic ever. I tried not to butcher it, but it's quite possible I did anyway. Feel free to tell me if you think so. ^^ This is a fic about a girl attending Battle School before Ender Wiggin. There are mentions, in Ender's Game, about kids they thought would defeat the buggers and failed. And here's my take one one. Read on, if you dare.  
  
FORESHADOW  
  
"So, Graff, tell me about this new genius you've selected for our fine establishment."  
  
"Fine establishment, sir?"  
  
"I had hoped the sarcasm would not be lost on you."  
  
"Respectfully, sir, I seem to remember you telling me that I could take the matter of launchies into my own hands."  
  
"Respectfully, Graff, I seem to remember telling you not to send Bonzo Madrid up."  
  
"A whim, sir, nothing more."  
  
"I call it deliberately disobeying an order. But enough of this, Graff. Tell me about your newest victim."  
  
"I think she may be the one to save us all."  
  
"May be?"  
  
"Never can be sure, in times like these."  
  
"In times like these, you'd better be sure. Any faults?"  
  
"I'm willing to take chances. I have to be willing. Taking chances is my job."  
  
"Stop defending your ego and answer my question."  
  
"She's arrogant, but we all are. She also has an uncanny appreciation for life. That's it. We haven't picked up any more. She's a clean-cut genius."  
  
"I thought you told me we needed geniuses with the instinct to kill, Graff. This is a rather untimely contradiction."  
  
"She'll kill, if need be. She just doesn't have the soul of a jackal."  
  
"Fine. You and your ego win. Send her up, but don't expect a medal. Dismissed."  
  
"How about a raise?"  
  
"Dismissed means that I want you to go. Good-bye, Graff. I'll expect a shuttle in three days to arrive at the school. With the McMurry girl in it."  
  
***  
  
Sinead was on the nets when the doorbell rang, looking at a news site. She sat up at the noise, but didn't bother to answer it. Mother would do that. She always did.  
  
"Yes? What do you want?" Sinead logged off quietly and stood. Her mother's voice sounded agitated, nervous.  
  
An aloof, commanding voice answered. "I am Corporal Green, with the IF."  
  
"You're taking her, aren't you?"  
  
"Where is Sinead?"  
  
Sinead ducked her head under her mother's arm. "Here."  
  
The man standing in the doorway was middle-aged and fit, with blue eyes and blond hair. He was almost generically German, tall and muscular. "I am Corpor -"  
  
"I heard," Sinead interrupted. They had selected her for Battle School, obviously. All that monitoring, and they treated her as though she was deaf? She ran her fingers through her red hair in a gesture of impatience.  
  
"Won't you stay for dinner?" her mother asked, always the kind hostess. Sinead hated her right at that moment. Your daughter is leaving you, Cassie McMurry. And all you think of is manners? Because Sinead was certainly leaving, whenever the IF needed her to go. The family had accepted that when the monitor was placed on her neck.  
  
"No, ma'am. The shuttle leaves in twenty-four hours. Sinead and I will not eat until we arrive at battle school. It's policy. And sanitation service, at the same time." He grinned, but Sinead figured the joke was all too true. "And we will leave now."  
  
So much for long term notice. Green took one of her small hands and simply walked away with Sinead in tow. Her mother clung to the doorway behind her, too shocked to speak.  
  
"Why did you do that?" the little girl asked, as soon as they were out of ear-reach. She tugged her hand out of his huge one.  
  
"Because it will be easier for you if you don't say goodbye to your brothers and parents."  
  
"Ah," she said sarcastically. "It's nice to know you people are aware of what I feel."  
  
Green smiled. It was not a friendly smile. "We practically are." He touched the monitor, sending a small electric shock through her spine. "Just a reminder." She only smiled in return. And her grin was not particularly friendly, either.  
  
"I thought you people chose me because I'm a genius."  
  
"Yes. Obviously not for modesty."  
  
She sighed. "My point is, any fool would behave differently than normal if they knew there was someone watching him, evaluating his every move."  
  
The corporal thought about this for a minute. "Yes, but you've had the monitor for three years."  
  
"So? You think I'd forget that there are battle school officers judging me at every moment, deciding whether I have the qualities needed to attend? Knowledge of strategy, leadership, quick thinking." She looked up at him. It was a long way to look up for a six-year old. "So I exaggerated those qualities, made sure you all saw them."  
  
"I suppose I see what you mean," the Corporal answered, reluctant to admitting his wrong. But even as he got where she was coming from, Sinead questioned herself. Constant acting affected the true person, she knew. It was like that phrase about masks - the longer you wear one, the more it becomes a part of you. It was possible, even likely, that without the monitor Sinead would continue to act as she had, without even thinking about it. The thought disturbed her, but she was distracted by a grunt for the Corporal. A large Cadillac was parked in front of them, and Green was motioning for her to get in.  
  
"My ticket to battle school?" she asked as she swung a small leg onto the black upholstered seat.  
  
Green nodded. "Your ticket to insanity." He closed the door. 


	2. Null-G

"So, Graff, I hear you've got the little tyke in your clutches."  
  
"Only trying to follow orders, sir."  
  
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated. When does the shuttle leave?"  
  
"Ten hours from now."  
  
"And where is she?"  
  
"Getting the monitor off."  
  
"Ah, the famous monitor. Is she excited about her freedom?"  
  
"She is not free, sir. The school monitors do almost the same thing, sir."  
  
"Almost, Graff?"  
  
"Yes. At the school, we do not intervene if there is trouble."  
  
"So, as a launchie and as a girl, you're putting Sinead in danger at every moment?"  
  
"Precisely, sir."  
  
***  
  
The shuttle was worse than Sinead had imagined it. Green began by buckling all of his new charges in - except for Sinead, who had figured the harness out by herself. The red-head watched him out of the corner of her eye at all times. She didn't trust him, and for the first time in her life she was afraid. The monitor was off now, no one was watching to see how she saw things, no one was ready to jump in and save her from danger.  
  
Of course, there were monitors everywhere, the little girl knew. But they watched everyone, focused on the crowds rather than the individual. She would make her own safety now.  
  
A tall boy was sitting next to her, his big blue eyes darting nervously from side to side. Sinead immediately composed her behavior, reminding herself over and over again that looking nervous was a sign of weakness.  
  
A tall, portly man jumped up into the cabin and sealed the door behind him. Next thing she knew, the shuttle took off. A wave of nausea hit everyone as gravity was obliviated. Sinead couldn't help being a little surprised as her long, red hair floated around her head like a mermaid's. The boy next to her was dry heaving. She looked the other way.  
  
Everyone in the cabin was looking a little green, except for the fat man and Green himself. The fat man wasn't even harnessed! As she watched, he did a cartwheel and began to walk along the ceiling.  
  
Everyone gasped and the boy only heaved louder, but Sinead was getting the idea. In null-gravity, the floor was only where you wanted it to be, where you imagine it to be. She grinned at the thought of a null- gravity world, where people just walked around on the clouds. Perhaps this was what Heaven was like.  
  
Green turned to look at her. "What, exactly, is so funny?" Even he looked slightly nauseated, due to the fact that the children around him were requesting barf bags.  
  
Sinead grinned a little bit wider. "I was just thinking what a world, or a room, like this would be like," she said. "People would walk everywhere, and no one would care which part was the floor, because there would be no floor."  
  
To her surprise, Green smiled back. 


End file.
